Commercial Internet Connectivity in every village - Towards Rural Prosperity Ashok Jhunjhunwala TeNeT Group, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

October 2003ITU Telecom2 The Dream Current Rural GDP in India = $ 150 billion For a Population= 700 million people GDP / Person = $ 220 DOUBLING Rural GDP $ 400 / Person Rural Prosperity

October 2003ITU Telecom3 Agriculture Animal Husbandry Agricultural Processing Industry IT-Based Services Trade & Commerce Rural Micro-Enterprises are the Wealth Creators  Micro-enterprises need Finance Knowledge and Training Buying & Selling Insurance  Can Communications Enable these ?

October 2003ITU Telecom4 How does one connect Rural India?  India has 600,000+ villages 700 million people can Rural India afford Connections?  Needs Technology Sustainable Business Model Organisation which thinks and acts Rural

October 2003ITU Telecom5 Serving people with incomes of less than a dollar a day  75% rural households can spend barely $2.4 per month on telecom Dollars spend per month on Telecom by HH assuming 4% of income can be spent on Telecom $

October 2003ITU Telecom6 n-Logue uses Innovative Technology to connect Rural India  To PSTN To Internet 35/70 kbps Internet plus simultaneous telephone $ 150 per line price 1 million lines being deployed  BSNL has fibre connectivity to most Talukas (county hq) CorDECT WLL developed at IITM provides a telephone line and Internet connection in a 30 Km radius can connect 85% of Indian villages start-up costs very low

October 2003ITU Telecom7 Aggregate Demand  Entrepreneur-driven telephone booths (STD PCOs) introduced in 1987 night-time long distance charges reduced by a factor of 4  Today 950,000 STD PCOs covering every street of smallest town generate 25 % of total telecom income 300 million people use these PCOs

October 2003ITU Telecom8  n-Logue : A Rural Service Provider aggregate demand into a kiosk $1000 (including taxes) per Kiosk providing telephone, Internet, multimedia PC with web-camera, printer and power back-up for PC plus Indian language software, video conferencing software, training and maintenance set up by a village entrepreneur on the lines of STD PCOs needs only $2.5 per day to break even Innovative Business Models

n-Logue Deployment Strategy Application & Content Providers Telephone Backbone Internet Backbone Scope: 1 –3 Talukas 25 Km radius, 2000 sq km 4 – 500 K population towns villages LSP Banks ACCESS CENTRE Connections (at least 1 in each village) Connections: Individuals Government — schools and PHCs Kiosks $1000 / Kiosk KIOSK OPERATOR Banks Micro Finance Organisations

Word-processor in Indian Languages

Multi-lingual Office Package IITM - Chennai Kavigal

October 2003ITU Telecom12 Digital Studio – Low cost Photography Photograph taken with a Web Camera Printed Photograph

October 2003ITU Telecom13 Video-conferencing Video conferencing from a village with the Communications Minister (Shri Thirunavakarasu) IITM - OOPS

October 2003ITU Telecom14 The Agricultural Expert is no longer far away … After Before In a Village in Madurai, the Lady’s Finger (Okra) crop was turning white The problem was sent to the experts at the Department of Rural Extension, Madurai Agricultural College and Research Centre who diagnosed it as “Yellow Mosaic disease” Saving to farmer - $3500 Cost of Information - half dollar

October 2003ITU Telecom15 The Vet is On The Net … This goat had a wound near its mouth and could not eat for a week The advice from the doctor cured its problem in 2 days

Emergencies are no longer Calamities … In the village of T Ulgapitchanpatti, all hens are dying one by one. The symptoms for these hens are …... At this stage they die immediately. Until now, 300 hens have died in this way. How do we stop this? Please give us a solution immediately. From A. Sakkarai" A visit from the Government Veterinary Officials to vaccinate all hens

October 2003ITU Telecom17 Epidemics can be prevented with a Doctor on Call  A potential epidemic of Chicken Pox was halted by a simple to the right people  Instant response from the Government Doctors

October 2003ITU Telecom18 Ordinary People have a Voice … Veeramani, a man with disabilities was fired as pump operator by Village Headman Through the kiosk, he sent an petition to the Chief Minister’s Cell, attaching his photograph A letter came back from the CM’s Cell asking that he be reinstated

Eye Care An is sent to the Aravind Eye Hospital with a photograph of patient’s eyes The patient is told that her problem is not serious and could wait for some time Enhanced Interaction with the doctor through video conferencing

October 2003ITU Telecom20 General Health – An Online Clinic with a Doctor

October 2003ITU Telecom21 Talking to an Agricultural Expert

October 2003ITU Telecom22 Video-conferencing (6 kiosks in conversation)

October 2003ITU Telecom23 Bridging the Digital Divide – Computer Education for Rural Children

October 2003ITU Telecom24

October 2003ITU Telecom25 Can Kiosks become Micro-banks?  TeNeT and n-Logue working with ICICI Bank Remote Bill Payment Rural ATM Micro-finance Remittance  Credit and Product Marketing is one of the biggest requirements of Rural India

October 2003ITU Telecom26 Knowledge and Training  Another Driver of Rural Prosperity Information Dissemination and Knowledge Enhancement  Need a Virtual University in every District to enable this Basic Structure would Consist of a Central Hub And Knowledge Extension Centres in every village

The Extension Centre Virtual Extension of the University Located in Every Village Enhanced Village Internet Kiosk equipped with Computer(s) Internet Connection Web Camera and Multimedia Power backup Local Language Software Run by a local person who is trained to facilitate the learning process There will about 1000 such Extension Centres in Every District

October 2003ITU Telecom28 Sparse Area Communications -- where there is no fibre backbone  Microwave or Satellite back-haul required microwave link costs have come down can be optimised further -- tower costs dominate satellite back-haul needs special design providing significant data-rate at each remote hub Hub serves 50 to 100 villages in Km radius driving down the total cost to connect a village finance and buying/selling may make even larger sense

8-10 voice channels + 64/128 kbps Internet satellite backhaul Each hub supports 16 to 20 remote sites with 2 Mbps downlaod $200 corDECT + $200 backhaul cost per connection PSTN Internet 2.4 m antenna 3.8 m antenna  Kms with 50 connections  For inaccessible Rural Areas 2 Mbps --> 128 Kbps --> < Kbps ISRO-IITM

October 2003ITU Telecom30 To Sum Up  Doubling Rural GDP will change India Finance, Commerce, Training & Information are key Wireless Internet can enable these Sparse Areas will require special efforts  Internet in Rural Areas is the key Infrastructure